Month: February 2023
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Empire of Light, Olivia Colman wows again
Empire of Light tells a multilayered story about an English cinema in 1980 and the people who worked there. It’s a tangle of themes about mental illness, racism, and cinema. There are spoilers ahead.
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Under the Vines, S2, it’s harvest time in New Zealand
Under the Vines returned for season 2 with the same warm and charming group of novice winemakers. They struggle to figure out wine, love, and life in this cheerful series.
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She Said, going public with charges of sexual abuse
She Said tells the story of the work done at the New York Times to expose the history of Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator. It’s a powerful look at the work and effort that went into preparing the story and making it public.
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True Spirit, the Jessica Watson story
True Spirit tells the true story of Jessica Watson, an Australian girl who had a dream – a seemingly impossible dream – and made it happen. At 16, she became the youngest person to ever sail solo around the world.
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Cunk on Earth, docu-style parody
Cunk on Earth brings British humor and parody to the documentary. Philomena Cunk, played by a straight-faced Diane Morgan, is a cornucopia of bad information, mispronunciations, and malapropism. She asks ridiculous questions of real experts and they do their best to answer as if the questions made sense.
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Call Jane, the past could rise again
Call Jane is based on a secret network of women who helped desperate women in Chicago in the 1960s find safe abortion care. They stopped when Roe vs. Wade went into effect. And here we are, 50 some years later, and a service like that provided by the Janes is in need again.
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, feel the love
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released by Disney+ on the first day of Black History Month. Certainly nothing calculated about that move, right? I was happy for the chance to see it, however. It’s a beautiful film, gloriously beautiful, and full of love.
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Poker Face, Natasha Lyonne always knows the truth
Poker Face is halfway through its season, so I feel safe in saying it’s a hit. Natasha Lyonne leads a cast of guest stars so well-known it will make your head spin, in this crime-solving mystery created by Rian Johnson.
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Genius, the man who edited Thomas Wolfe
Genius, the 2016 version starring Colin Firth and Jude Law, is about Scribner editor Max Perkins (Firth) and his efforts to corral the language of Thomas Wolfe (Law) into marketable books.
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Tár, total brilliance from Cate Blanchett
Tár is 2 hours and 38 minutes of watching Cate Blanchett be brilliant as the first ever woman director of the Berlin Orchestra, Lydia Tár. Lydia was also a woman who used her power to seduce the young women who caught her interest.